New Japan Pro Wrestling – G1USA Special – July 7th, 2018 – Live Blog

Tonight is the New Japan G1 USA Special at the Cow Palace in San Francisco. The show starts at 8:00pm EDT, 1am GMT & 9am JST and is available on AXS TV for U.S viewers and njpwworld for Non-US viewers. The show will have Jim Ross and Josh Barnett on commentary.

We kick off the show with commentators, Jimm Ross and Josh Barnett running down the card, followed by a video package.

10 Man Tag Match – Bullet Club vs Chaos

The first wrestlers to make their entrances is Chaos; roppongi 3K, Gedo and YOSHI-HASHI. They are followed by The Bullet Club; Tama Tonga, Tonga Loa, Chase Owens, Takahashi Yujiro and King Haku.

Haku starts with YOSHI-HASHI and everything YOSHI-HASHI does the crowd boos and when Haku is on offence the crowd cheers. Rocky got a hot tag to YOH but Bullet Club got more heat on SHO. The Bullet Club the heels as always but the crowd is very strongly behind them. The finish happens when Haku grabbed Gedo and throws him into Tama Tonga for a cutter for the win, Tama pins Gedo. Winners, Bullet Club.

Toru Yano & Tomohiro Ishii vs Zack Sabre Jr & Minoru Suzuki

Minoru Suzuki and ZSJ makes his way to the ring first with a new remix of his music. Some looked confused but most looked very excited to see Suzuki. The crowd cheered when Ishii’s music played.

Minoru Suzuki and Tomohiro Ishii kicks off the match and very quickly get into the striking exchange, they both tag out. After ZSJ and Suzuki torturing Yano, Suzuki and Ishii get back to it with the huge hits. While Suzuki are fighting at ringside, Yano goes a low blow on ZSJ but Zack catches it again but eats a clothesline from Ishii out of nowhere which leads to Yano pinning Zack Sabre Jr. Winners, Toru Yano and Tomohiro Ishii.

The Bullet Club is over as always and Marty is really over with most crowds but Tanahashi is a rock star and it always shows when he makes an entrance and goes to shake hands with people.

Marty starts the match with Kushida and these two wrestle to kick things off. We then move to Hangman Page vs Tanahashi. Tanahashi gets the crowd cheering him and chanting his name. Marty and Page have some new tag team moves but when they try a move on Taguchi the crowd boos. Almost out of nowhere, Hangman Page and Kushida are struggling in the ring, Kushida is trying to get the hoverboard lock but Hangman throws him up and piledrives Kushida for the win. Winners, Marty Scurll & Hangman Page.

IWGP Never Openweight Championship Match – Jeff Cobb vs Hirooki Goto

Jeff Cobb makes his entrance first then followed by the champion, Hirooki Goto. This starts off with big power moves but when Goto stomps Cobb, the crowd boos. Jeff Cobb is showing off all of his power moves which looks really impressive with Goto. Cobb hits a huge clothesline which Goto lands on his head from then a backflip onto Goto. Goto kicked out at 2 & 9/10, great false finish. Hirooki Goto defeats after struggling to hit the GTR. Winner and still Never Openweight Champion, Hirooki Goto.

EVIL & Sanada make their entrances first, followed by the Champions. LIJ get the heat on Matt but in parts this match has your top Young Bucks spots and pace. A while into this match, the Young Bucks go to superkick EVIL but EVIL moves and The Young Bucks kick the ref, this allows the chairs to coneout. LIJ reverse a Meltzer driver and hit one of there own on a chair on Matt. After a few reversals and a “This Is Awesome” chant the Young Bucks hit a Meltzer driver on EVIL for the win. Winners, Matt & Nick Jackson, The Young Bucks..

The ring announcer announced the next two shows from NJPW in the US. The first is September 30 in Long Beach and after that is “Lions Break” the young lions shows on November 10th & 11th. Both announcements got very little crowd noise.

Intermission(15 minutes)

After LIJ, Will Ospreay & Kazuchika Okada make their entrances to Okada’ S new music. Okada comes out wit red balloons, he seems different. This match was great as you can imagine, it moved very quick with lots of crisp fun wrestling. Ospreay pinned BUSHI with the Stormbreaker but neither commentator knew the name of the move and they called it a neck breaker. Product knowledge is so important when dealing with a company that has such a rabid fan base that knows so much and watches everything.

Dragon Lee, representing CMLL, makes his way to the ring first. We then get the Ticking Timebomb, with Darryl Jr. Before we start and before Hiromu takes his jacket off, Dragon Lee kicks off the match with a rana over the ropes to the outside. Takahashi has “Lee” and Hearts drawn on his wrist tape amungst other things. Hiromu hits a huge senton to Lee from the top turnbuckle to the outside of the Ring. Lee hit his head on the guard Rail. These two hit each other with big move after big move, then moving in the ring to hit suplex after suplex on each other. This is lots of back and forth and Tmthe crowd love it. At the 15 minute mark Dragon Lee tries to hit a suplex which goes wrong and Hiromu lands right on his head and slides along the mat. Hiromu didn’t seem the same after that move and may have even gone to the finish quicker than planned as it was over with a Timebomb from Takahashi. Winner and still IWGP Jr Heavyweight Champion, Hiromu Takahashi.

That suplex really did look terrible for Takahashi, he walked out but kept selling the head. I hope he’s ok.

A special ruling has been added to this match. If Juice Robinson uses his cast he will be disqualified. While these two brawl at ringside Switchblade throws Juice through the metal guard rail taking out the front row and timekeepers in a big spot, the crowd boos heavily. This is a great crowd and probably the best reaction these two have ever got. The crowd hate the good heels and really get behind the believable babyfaces, they chant “F— You Switchblade” and “USA” for Juice. Switchblade Jay White keeps targeting the broken hand as Josh Barnett explains the cast cannot be used by Juice but it’s completely legal for Jay White to target it. Switchblade suplexes Juice into the barrier which sends Jim Ross flying, this did not looked planned and if so then someone has a hell of a lot of apologising. At the moment Jim Ross went flying, Josh Barnett said “somebody f–ked up now!” And chased Jay White, making Jay look weak. This got Jay a lot of heat and both commentators precede to tell us how unprofessional this match is with no rules being enforced, Jim can be quoted as saying “This is embarrassing”. You don’t hurt JR, Jay, you made a huge mistake. As the match continues, these two hit multiple big moves on each other until Jay,White hits a low blow on Juice when the refereewas down. Moments later, Juice hits Jay White with his cast(left hand) and hits a pulp friction for a very believable near fall that most of the crowd bought into. Jay White hits a half Nelson suplex on Juices head, moments after Juice rolls up Jay White for the win. Winner and new IWGP US Heavyweight Champion, Juice Robinson.

If you missed the JR bump and Josh Barnett chasing Jay White, here is a clip that AXS TV Tweeted

It’s Main Event Time!

IWGP Heavyweight Championship Match – Kenny Omega (c) vs Cody

Cody comes to the ring with Brandi, Bernard the Business Bear and he was carried to the ring on a throne by four big men. Kenny came to the ring with The Young Bucks, not Kota Ibushi. Last yeah Kenny stated when they come back to the US both him and Ibushi would have marquee matches but instead, Kota is not on the show.

Kenny Omega puts Cody through a table with a double storm after Cody spend a while stalling at Ringside. This has some great Omega dives and Cody is the best heel, the people hate him here. Both guys go outside and Kenny gets a ladder while Cody gets chairs. The fans chant “TLC”. This leads to a ladder half way out the ring, under the bottom rope, and Cody hits a front suplex on Kenny on the ladder, which bounces back and hits Omega in the face. As Cody sets up Kenny on a table the Young Bucks try to stop this and Cody shoves Matt Jackson over. They then hit a massive superplex from the top of a huge ladder while teasing a superplex to the outside through a table, I yelled out loud when I saw it. Cody got a great nearfall on the Cross Rhodes, just after the Bucks take the ladder out of the ring and away from Kenny and Cody. Kenny throws Cody over the top rope in a powerbomb position, backwards onto a table which didn’t break but instead it slid away from Cody. Cody back in the ring looks done and Kenny is about to finish it until Brandi climbs on her husband while sobbing, this gives Cody time to recover enough to come back with a clothesline. Cody kicks out of a double underhook piledriver but couldn’t kick out of the One Winged Angle. Winner and still IWGP Heavyweight Champion, Kenny Omega.

After the match and post match promo Kenny, Matt & Nick Jackson celebrate with the Tongans and even two sweet at the top of the ramp until Tama Tonga, Tonga Loa and King Haku turn on Bullet Club, beating up Kenny Omega, the Young Bucks and more Bullet Club that came to help including Hangman Page, Marty Scurll, Yujiro Takahashi and Chase Owens. The Tongans mainly focus on Omega until Cody limps down to the ring. Cody acts like he’s going to hit Kenny with the chair until he turns on the Tongans, which doesn’t last long. The Tongans lay out the entire Bullet Club and leave.

After the Tongans leave Kenny and Cody hug and “This version of Bullet Club” seems to have made up.

And that is it. Great show, I really enjoyed another NJPW show and am looking forward to this year’s G1 Climax which I will cover on this site.

The Show has now finished.

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